The next President may appoint as many as four Supreme Court Justices who could reform the ailing Federal criminal justice bureaucracy:

nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in
jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case
to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be
taken for public use, without just compensation

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people

The powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people

when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it
is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government

At the time, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) described it as a necessary step.

“This
bill creates a mechanism to put the federal government on notice that
Utah must be restored to its rightful place as a co-equal partner,” he
said in a signing statement.

“The federal government retaining control of two-thirds of our landmass
was never in the bargain when we became a state, and it is indefensible
116 years later.”

Ranchers at center of Oregon protest to turn themselves in

Play Video1:00

The
father and son ranchers at the center of an Oregon protest at a
wildlife refuge are expected to turn themselves in to federal
authorities to complete a previous prison sentence. (Reuters)

Proponents of the movement say it’s about local control and taking back what rightly belongs to state residents.

Critics
fear that reclaiming public land could become a financial burden for
states and may be the first step toward the land being sold off or
otherwise losing its protected status.

The fight
itself stretches back to the passage of the Federal Land Policy and
Management Act of 1976, which confirmed the policy of federal retention
of state public lands.

Since then, lawmakers throughout the West have pushed
back against the lack of control over land within their borders,
including during the famous “Sagebrush Rebellion” of the 1970s and 1980s
— a movement that counted Ronald Reagan among its supporters.

The
region is home to nearly 93 percent of all federal land, according to 2010 data compiled
by the Congressional Research Service.

Just over half (52 percent) of
all the land within the nation’s 13 Western states is under federal
control.

In Nevada, over 80 percent of the land within the
state’s borders belongs to the federal government.

Utah ranks second,
controlling only one-third of the land within its borders.

Alaska and Idaho control about three-fifths of the land within their
borders, while Oregon ranks fifth, with 47 percent of its land under
state control.

Last
year, nearly a dozen Western states considered bills related to the
issue, ranging from creating committees to study it to requiring the
federal government to transfer control of public lands to the states,
according to an August report by the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation organization.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) vetoed two bills
that asked the federal government to hand over public lands, but signed
another that created a committee to study the issue. In Montana, Gov.
Steve Bullock (D) vetoed a similar study-committee bill.

“My
position on this issue is crystal clear: I do not support any effort
that jeopardizes or calls into question the future of our public lands
heritage,” he wrote in a veto letter.

The Nevada legislature passed a bill
urging Congress to transfer 7 million acres of federal land to the
state — an effort that had the support of several top Nevada
Republicans.

“I think most if not all Nevadans, including me,
would like to see more of the federal land turned over to the state, for
us to manage and care for ourselves,” Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) said in an interview with Nevada magazine.

Bundy summons militia to Oregon in Facebook video

Play Video2:26

Ammon
Bundy used a Facebook video posted Dec. 31 to summon an armed militia
to Burns, Ore., by Jan. 2.

When they arrived, they took over a federal
building.

After the protest, Bundy told a reporter why this fight is so
important to him. (The Washington Post)

Legislators in Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming also proposed related bills last year.

Polling conducted last year by the Colorado College State of the Rockies project found that majorities of voters in
each of six Western states — Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico,
Utah and Wyoming — view the lands managed by the federal government as
belonging to the nation.

CORRECTION: An
earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the effect of
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. It has been updated.

Your
comment reflects what the spin doctors want you to believe. Local and
state governments are more invested in preserving land and unlike the
Feds they have their own citizens to answer to. You have been lied-to
and manipulated by the press.

Bluhorizons

7:59 PM PST

johnkomalleyPerhaps
you have failed to notice how these articles are long on negative
comments about the farmers but short on actual facts explaining why they
are angry. Did you ever ask yourself why? Did it ever occur to you that
these guys are not automatically selfish, evil but in fact you don't
recall that farmer and ranchers are tied to the land and love nature in
ways you city slickers can never understand. Why not at least give them a
break and actually look into their claims instead of shooting your
mouth off.

Bluhorizons

7:41 PM PST

The
Federal government is not well-known for managing anything, so, just on
that basis alone the complaints lodged should at least be examined.

First,
grazing rights are sold at a pittance of what those same rights go for
on private land, so the price should be raised, not lowered and not
free. Low prices have gone on so long they have become an entitlement.
Higher cost for rights would (maybe) give Bureau of Land Management
enough cash to do a few things.

Second, the Park Service acts
like an 800 pound gorilla and does little or nothing to protect abutted
private land. They NEVER crop to make a fire break. They impose
arbitrary regulations on farmers and ranchers that cost more than they
are worth. They are content to let everything burn and then try to go to
court against the Federal government and see what happens.

They
close off roads that are essential to transit thru Federal property,
which in some places is more than private property. there have been huge
fights over this alone.

Then, there are the deer. In some
places deer are coming out of people's ears, eating the flowers off
windowsills, denuding shrub. There should be regular census of deer
populations and then controlled hunts. Between the over-grazing of
cattle and sheep and poor control of the deer, the land remains damaged.
Invasive species have been allowed to flourish.

In short,
the Federal government acts like a feudal lord who can't manage but
maintains its rights by force of arms. The press has concentrated on
making the ranchers look like bad guys and their siege mentality doesn't
help, but most of these guys have been battling the federal government
just to keep their own agriculture businesses alive --for decades.
Nothing is ever done. The press makes these guys look like terrorists
but in fact these people are more deeply committed to preserving the
land than the Feds.

Bluhorizons

7:46 PM PST [Edited]

Your
comment shows little knowledge of the facts. In reality, the federal
government has never been known as a good manager of land and if you
look at those maps you can see how the huge amount of land actually
isolates private land. Much of BLM land is closed off in many cases
arbitrarily and private people have a lot of trouble going around it.
This is infuriating when there are perfectly good roads that are closed
off.

The private people who are impacted do not have fancy
spin doctors and are not slick. they are ranchers and farmers. They have
ties to the land and to nature you can't begin to understand. They are
made out to be poachers and interlopers but in fact it is they who love
the land, not the fools at the BLM.

Paul Simonson

7:40 PM PST

The
WoPo has idiots making up headlines to stories..."The Oregon standoff
is far bigger than a group of armed men in a forest" Sorry, but
these guys are not in a "forest".

Leslie Gray

7:39 PM PST [Edited]

Looks
to me like some developers are getting hungry. No new land is getting
made, so they need to find a way to free up land that had been set aside
by the government so they can make a profit. Greed

Bluhorizons

8:03 PM PST [Edited]

Your mind does not reach very far. This land should be managed by
state and local governments. They, at least, have to be responsive to
the people who live there. The idea that such control is actually a way
to sell off the land has been put in your mind. Did you ever ask
yourself if there is any proof of that? Any? Once more you have been
bamboozled and swallowed it whole.

Lamar Vannoy

7:38 PM PST

Loving
the pro-state blind nationalistic support for killing these guys. Move
to china, they would love your enthusiasm about stopping dissent and
ever making any trouble.

WhyEvenBotherWithTheTruth

7:41 PM PST

No
need to kill anyone. Let them stay there. I am a share holder in that
land and have no problem with leaving them there to eat MREs till the
sun fails to rise.Fellow citizens, our mutual prosperity depends upon due process, free economy, free elections, free speech,integrity, legal protection of liberty, life, property and self-defense.Therefore we are only the leading Constitutional Independent Candidate for liberty, life, peace and prosperity.We are not funded by special warfare welfare interests with anti-American conflicts of interest.Thus we count on your self-interest and support now to win Independent Constitutional Representative Leadership for you and yours in 2016 and beyond: